As I got married relatively young I haven’t had a lot of birthdays away from my family and my mom’s chicken enchiladas and devil’s food cake.. and definitely never completely alone. But that’s just how the cards played out this year. The thing is Marcus was called for an interview for an internship with Goldman Sachs that he’d applied for a few months ago. The email was pretty clear.

Come on Rebecca’s birthday. We’ll need you in the morning in Salt Lake City and we’ll fly you out with an airline that only flies out from Hawaii once a day.

Pretty clear. And we decided this opportunity was too big to pass up. So due to the few flights he flew out just a few hours before midnight last night and won’t be home till my birthday is over tonight. That’s good scheduling! Well played!

On top of my best friend having to leave over night for the very first time in our marriage on this particular day… I also happened to be sick. – our apartment is great and nice and cool, but I haven’t been good at adjusting to this and because we’re in Hawaii I never thought it might be smart to wear socks. So I haven’t been able to go anywhere and have spent the day sitting in bed or on the couch sneezing my head off with no appetite whatsoever. Glorious!

But what a calm and nice day it’s been nevertheless! The trick I learned is to switch on the ‘child in candy store’ mindset. Think of all the opportunities! I could play online games all day if I wanted! Watch as many Ellen Show interviews on Youtube as I wanted! Sleep all day! Talk to my family on Skype for as long as possible! Cook up all the potatoes in the fridge and have a baked potato feast!

I mean… I was gonna have a partay!

And I did! Time flew a little. My mom was even so nice to stay up half her night to keep me company. (Thanks mom!) Marcus had time to stop by Temple Square and tap my dear sister on the shoulder. Can’t decide if it made me more happy or jealous. I miss her! Also in my man’s absence, I got to finally finish the fourth season of Downton Abbey!

At last it was time to go pick up my hub at the airport. It was good to see him. The poor guy had only slept two hours since he’d left and was pretty hungry. I realized how safe and content I’d been blessed to feel all the time since we got married and how big a blow loneliness was when it showed its ugly yet vaguely familiar face. The last year has been an extremely happy one. Though you don’t often notice that while it’s going on, it’s nice to have the small aha experiences afterwards. I’m so happily married and I don’t have a care in the world – none that are worth worrying about at least.